LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT UPDATED EXAM SCRIPT
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Germinal stage - ✔✔The first stage of prenatal development which takes place in
the first two weeks after conception. It includes the creation of the zygote, continued cell
division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall.
✔✔Embryonic stage - ✔✔The second stage of prenatal development that occurs two to
eight weeks after conception. During this stage, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies,
support systems for the cells form, and organs appear.
✔✔Fetal stage - ✔✔The third and last stage of prenatal development, is the prenatal
stage between two months after conception and birth. Growth and development
continue their dramatic course during this time.
✔✔Teratogen - ✔✔Any agent that can potentially cause a birth defect or negatively alter
cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
✔✔Cephalocaudal pattern of growth - ✔✔The sequence in which the earliest growth
always occurs at the top—the head—with physical growth and differentiation of features
gradually working their way down from top to bottom (for example, shoulders, middle
trunk, and so on). This same pattern occurs in the head area, because the top parts of
the head—the eyes and brain—grow faster than the lower parts, such as the jaw.
✔✔Proximodistal pattern of growth - ✔✔The sequence in which growth starts at the
center of the body and moves toward the extremities. For example, infants control the
muscles of their trunk and arms before they control their hands and fingers, and they
use their whole hands before they can control several fingers.
✔✔Reflexes - ✔✔Built-in reactions to stimuli.
newborn- sucking, rooting, grasping, moro
lifelong- blinking, sneezing, coughing, yawning
✔✔Dynamic systems theory - ✔✔The perspective on motor development that seeks to
explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting. To develop
motor skills, infants must perceive something in their environment that motivates them
to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements. Motor skills represent
solutions to the infant's goals
✔✔Sensation - ✔✔the product of the interaction between information and sensory
receptors- the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin.
✔✔Perception - ✔✔the interpretation of what was sensed.
, ✔✔Ecological veiw - ✔✔the view that preception functions to bring organisms in contact
with the environment and to increase adaptation.
✔✔Affordances - ✔✔opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our
capabilities to perform functional activities
✔✔Schemes (Piaget) - ✔✔actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
✔✔Accommodations (Piaget) - ✔✔when children adjust their schemes to take new
information and experiences into account.
✔✔Assimilation (Piaget) - ✔✔when children use their existing schemes to deal with new
information or experiences.
✔✔Object Permanence (Piaget) - ✔✔the understanding that objects continue to exist
even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Acquiring the sense of object
permanence is one of the infant's most important accomplishments, according to Piaget.
✔✔Equilibrium (Piaget) - ✔✔balance between assimilation and accommodation
✔✔Temperament - ✔✔involves individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions,
and characteristic ways of responding
✔✔Securely attached Infant - ✔✔Infants use the mother as a home base from which to
explore when all is well, but seek physical comfort and consolation from her if frightened
or threatened
✔✔Insecure-avoidant attachment - ✔✔Infants avoid connection with the caregiver, as if
the infant seems not to care about the caregiver's presence, departure, or return
✔✔Insecure-resistant attachment - ✔✔Infants stay close to caregiver, yet resist her
closeness by kicking or pushing away. They are distressed when she leaves the room;
at reunion, the infant makes anxious contact with caregiver by clinging and resisting
contact; interactions may have angry quality
✔✔Insecure-disorganized attachment - ✔✔Infants appear dazed, apprehensive, and
confused. Inconsistent reactions.
✔✔Egocentrism - ✔✔In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's inability to understand
that other people have different points of view from their own.
✔✔Animism - ✔✔In Piaget's theory, the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike
qualities and are capable of action.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Germinal stage - ✔✔The first stage of prenatal development which takes place in
the first two weeks after conception. It includes the creation of the zygote, continued cell
division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall.
✔✔Embryonic stage - ✔✔The second stage of prenatal development that occurs two to
eight weeks after conception. During this stage, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies,
support systems for the cells form, and organs appear.
✔✔Fetal stage - ✔✔The third and last stage of prenatal development, is the prenatal
stage between two months after conception and birth. Growth and development
continue their dramatic course during this time.
✔✔Teratogen - ✔✔Any agent that can potentially cause a birth defect or negatively alter
cognitive and behavioral outcomes.
✔✔Cephalocaudal pattern of growth - ✔✔The sequence in which the earliest growth
always occurs at the top—the head—with physical growth and differentiation of features
gradually working their way down from top to bottom (for example, shoulders, middle
trunk, and so on). This same pattern occurs in the head area, because the top parts of
the head—the eyes and brain—grow faster than the lower parts, such as the jaw.
✔✔Proximodistal pattern of growth - ✔✔The sequence in which growth starts at the
center of the body and moves toward the extremities. For example, infants control the
muscles of their trunk and arms before they control their hands and fingers, and they
use their whole hands before they can control several fingers.
✔✔Reflexes - ✔✔Built-in reactions to stimuli.
newborn- sucking, rooting, grasping, moro
lifelong- blinking, sneezing, coughing, yawning
✔✔Dynamic systems theory - ✔✔The perspective on motor development that seeks to
explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting. To develop
motor skills, infants must perceive something in their environment that motivates them
to act and use their perceptions to fine-tune their movements. Motor skills represent
solutions to the infant's goals
✔✔Sensation - ✔✔the product of the interaction between information and sensory
receptors- the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin.
✔✔Perception - ✔✔the interpretation of what was sensed.
, ✔✔Ecological veiw - ✔✔the view that preception functions to bring organisms in contact
with the environment and to increase adaptation.
✔✔Affordances - ✔✔opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our
capabilities to perform functional activities
✔✔Schemes (Piaget) - ✔✔actions or mental representations that organize knowledge
✔✔Accommodations (Piaget) - ✔✔when children adjust their schemes to take new
information and experiences into account.
✔✔Assimilation (Piaget) - ✔✔when children use their existing schemes to deal with new
information or experiences.
✔✔Object Permanence (Piaget) - ✔✔the understanding that objects continue to exist
even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Acquiring the sense of object
permanence is one of the infant's most important accomplishments, according to Piaget.
✔✔Equilibrium (Piaget) - ✔✔balance between assimilation and accommodation
✔✔Temperament - ✔✔involves individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions,
and characteristic ways of responding
✔✔Securely attached Infant - ✔✔Infants use the mother as a home base from which to
explore when all is well, but seek physical comfort and consolation from her if frightened
or threatened
✔✔Insecure-avoidant attachment - ✔✔Infants avoid connection with the caregiver, as if
the infant seems not to care about the caregiver's presence, departure, or return
✔✔Insecure-resistant attachment - ✔✔Infants stay close to caregiver, yet resist her
closeness by kicking or pushing away. They are distressed when she leaves the room;
at reunion, the infant makes anxious contact with caregiver by clinging and resisting
contact; interactions may have angry quality
✔✔Insecure-disorganized attachment - ✔✔Infants appear dazed, apprehensive, and
confused. Inconsistent reactions.
✔✔Egocentrism - ✔✔In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's inability to understand
that other people have different points of view from their own.
✔✔Animism - ✔✔In Piaget's theory, the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike
qualities and are capable of action.
